A large number of the Dutch internationals are sure of a basic place at the approaching European Championship without injuries, but there is also a group that has to play in the spotlight during the exhibition countries with national coach Frank de Boer. Voetbalzone will zoom in on the latter category in the coming weeks. Today the focus is on Cody Gakpo and Jurriën Timber, who are both somewhat surprisingly allowed to join the final tournament.
By Thijs Verhaar
That the election of the 22-year-old Gakpo cannot be taken for granted, is evident from the fact that until recently the national coach addressed him with ‘Gapko’. Two days before the final announcement, the PSV attacker even told each other that they had spoken only once at training complex De Herdgang until the training camp with the the Dutch. “He greeted me there once and asked me how I was doing,” Gakpo reported on Tuesday NOS. “At the time I was still injured and fully engaged in my recovery,” he recalls.
The left winger sustained a serious ankle injury shortly after the winter break and then had to watch for three months. Presumably he would otherwise have been called up for the World Cup qualifying matches against Turkey, Latvia and Gibraltar in March, but a lack of match rhythm prevented him from sniffing out the big work with the Dutch national team. Erwin van de Looi, however, called him up for the group stage of the European Under-23 Championship. There he showed his class at the Juniors, especially in the game against Young Hungary. The Netherlands had to win the third and final game with large numbers to continue and Gakpo delivered with two goals and two assists (6-1).
Gakpo was good for 7 goals and 2 assists in 13 appearances for the Dutch Juniors.
Partly because of that match, the desire of the Dutch public to take him to the ‘big’ European Championship grew. Yet few people will have seen that not Steven Bergwijn or Ryan Babel, but he can go to the final tournament. It should also be called a surprise that Jurriën Timber has been preferred over Jeremiah St. Juste and Sven Botman, who did not even make the pre-selection despite his very strong year with the French champions Lille. Nineteen-year-old Timber, however, also had a promising debut season at Ajax and also has the advantage that he can play both in the heart of the defense and in the right back position.
Although national coaches often work with a permanent core as long in advance as possible, De Boer therefore chooses to fit in two newcomers. They both played less than a minute in the Dutch national team, which means that a fairly unique situation can arise when they make their debut at the European Championship. “It has not happened for forty years that an the Dutch player made his debut at a final tournament. It is rare, because it happened only three times in total, ”Michiel Jongsma says on behalf of Opta. At the request of Football zone he delved into the history books and noted that Martien Vreijsen played his first and only international match against Greece at the 1980 European Championship.
Strangely enough, exactly the same happened four years earlier when Wim Meutstege made his debut against Yugoslavia at the 1976 European Championship. The Sparta Rotterdam defender came in for Wim Jansen after the break and would never play a match for the Dutch national team again. Dick Schoenaker proved in 1978 that after an the Dutch debut at a final tournament you are not doomed to leave again immediately. to his list of achievements. At the time, he fell in against Austria half an hour before time and thus had a marginal role in the eventual second place at the world championship.
Jurriën Timber only played once for the Dutch Juniors and never for the ‘big’ Dutch national team, but has been called up for the representative youth teams of the Dutch since he was fourteen.
However, the chance that Gakpo and Timber will not make their first minutes until the European Championship is small. The Dutch national team will practice against Scotland on Wednesday 2 June and on Sunday 6 June Georgia will be the last opponent before the final tournament starts. De Boer will use those two matches to see as many players in action as possible, while also trying out multiple game systems. Gakpo has the advantage that he can play both as a left winger and as a second striker, while Timber can hope for a chance as one of the two or three central defenders or as a right back during the friendly matches.
Although they have completely different positions, they still have to deal with the same competitor at the Dutch to claim the role of first substitute behind fixed values Memphis Depay and Denzel Dumfries. Frank de Boer has already indicated that he considers left winger Quincy Promes a serious option to act as a judge wingback to draft. The former Ajax player held that position for a while at Sevilla and can add something extra to the team with his speed and attacking impulses if the Netherlands wants to play 5-3-2. Furthermore, Joël Veltman is also an experienced option for that position, which makes it seem difficult for Timber to get minutes at the final tournament.
47-time international Quincy Promes is a direct competitor of both left winger Cody Gakpo and right back Jurriën Timber
Nevertheless, he may have serious hope, because the argument ‘go along to gain experience’ is not really an issue. After all, he was – just like Gakpo and Teun Koopmeiners – also nominated to be called up for the Juniors, which will compete against the peers of France in the quarter finals of the European Under-23 Championship in June. In that team he had had a great chance of a starting place, which would also provide valuable experience. However, the KNVB has always indicated that the ‘big’ the Dutch is always leading, so Timber with his 31 appearances in the main force of Ajax and 39 games for Young Ajax is simply considered one of the best options available for the Dutch national team.
The same applies to the 22-year-old Gakpo, who now has 88 appearances for PSV and 25 games with Young PSV. He also faces competition from Promes at the European Championship, while Memphis Depay is the undisputed first choice as a left winger. Gakpo is often compared to Depay because of their similar profile (creative wing attackers from the youth of PSV) and hopes to follow his example if he gets the chance at the European championship. Depay was able to score in his first two games in a final tournament – after having played six exhibition games with the the Dutch squad before the start of the World Cup in 2014. “It would be great if I could also fulfill such a role”, Gakpo beamed at the Tuesday NOS. It is up to Frank de Boer whether he and Timber get such a chance or whether it remains to gain tournament experience from the reserve bench.
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